While you might be far from a cell-phone tower in the Outback, you’re never far from a LandCruiser. These vehicles outnumber cell-phone installations in Australia 30 to 1.

So we launched the LandCruiser Emergency Network (L.E.N.); an ongoing project aiming to bring emergency communications to the 5.3 million square kilometres of Australia’s landmass that currently receives no mobile signal.

By leveraging Australia’s most widely used 4x4, it’s possible for us to bring emergency communications to some of the most remote parts of the continent.

We engaged the experts in Rural, Remote and Humanitarian Telecommunications from Flinders University to help develop small, inexpensive, signal-providing devices that turn volunteers’ LandCruisers into communications hotspots with a range of up to 25km, close to what an ordinary cell-phone tower provides. Together, these vehicles create an emergency communications network anywhere it’s needed.

Once we had the idea of a roving emergency network, we engaged Flinders University remote communications experts to help develop the LandCruiser Emergency Network (L.E.N.) and device.

The result was a simple, inexpensive, signal-providing device engineered to use a combination of Wi-Fi, UHF and Delay-Tolerant-Networking (DTN) technology to turn vehicles into communications hotspots each with up to 25km range.

During emergencies, anyone within range can use the network to log a call or geo-tagged message straight from their ordinary mobile phone. Data is then securely passed between LandCruisers, on a store-and-forward basis, until it reaches a network base-station and first responders can be alerted.

Testing began in July 2015, with a full-scale pilot program initiated in August 2015 across a 50,000km2 area of remote Flinders Ranges.

This ongoing pilot is part of the larger project aiming to bring emergency communications to remote communities across Australia and around the world.

Thousands of messages have been successfully tested, with a pilot program launched in August 2015 across a 50,000km2 area of the remote Flinders Ranges in Outback Australia.

The successful pilot is just the first step:

• Toyota’s Product Planning Department is currently exploring distribution and integration of L.E.N. into LandCruisers in Australia and around the world.

• NGO’s, Emergency Services and Government agencies around Australasia have sought involvement with the project, with the aim of using L.E.N. devices in emergency responses.

The LandCruiser Emergency Network has successfully brought a means of communication to people who previously had almost no way of communicating with the outside world in times of emergency.

Almost 2/3 of Australia has no mobile signal. However, even in the most remote areas you’ll find LandCruisers; Australia’s highest selling range of 4x4s.

LandCruiser Emergency Network uses these vehicles to bring emergency communications to areas where there is no mobile signal.

To do this, Toyota is reaching out to LandCruiser drivers with technology that turns their vehicles into communications hotspots. The volunteer just installs the device and drives, and they are helping solve the problem of one of the world’s largest mobile-phone blackspots.

These LandCruisers link together to provide a communication network anyone can connect to during an emergency.

Toyota’s mission for technologies is to ‘help provide world class safety to protect the lives of customers’ in any way possible. We wanted to prove this wasn’t limited to people living in the city, or on-road safety, but a bigger mission that covered our customers wherever our vehicles took them.

With a market penetration of over 90% in many remote places, LandCruisers are everywhere in the Outback. And because of their toughness, durability and reliability, LandCruisers can go almost anywhere. This makes them the perfect platform for creating ad-hoc networks in even the most isolated places.

We saw an opportunity to utilise modern technology to make rural communities and remote areas even safer – not just for LandCruiser drivers and their passengers, but for their communities too.

Over 65% of the entire Australian continent still receives no mobile signal, an area of mostly harsh Outback bigger than the entire European Union. Frequent dangers such as fire, flood, stranding, dangerous wildlife, and extreme weather are made far more hazardous by an almost complete lack of digital communications.

At the same time, Australia is the world’s biggest market for LandCruisers. Due to their legendary toughness, durability and ability to go just about anywhere, LandCruisers are the only vehicle you’ll see in many rural and remote places. There are over half a million of them in a country of just 24m people.

So how could we go beyond advertising and use LandCruisers to help solve one of the biggest problems in remote communities and reinforce our position as THE vehicle for the Australian Outback?